China Christian Council
and
Amity Foundation

Lutheran mission work in China has a long and exciting history. American Lutheran missionaries first went to China in 1890. During the next several decades, hundreds of missionaries went to several different parts of China. After 1910, there was increasing cooperation between Lutheran mission groups, and seminaries, a university, publication house, and other church institutions were established and began to flourish despite disturbances due to political tensions.

The Lutheran Church of China was born in 1920. It was a loosely federated general body stretching from Canton in the south to Manchuria in the northeast, and was still growing toward maturity when Communist control of the mainland cut it off from Lutheran world fellowship in 1951. At that time there were over 100,000 baptized members, 1250 places of worship, 180 Chinese pastors, and over 1000 lay workers. At the height of missionary activity, more than 600 missionaries representing Lutherans from Europe and North America were at work in China.

After 1951, the Lutheran Church in China joined the government-approved "Three-Self Movement," and it activities were restricted to worship in the strictest sense. Christians in China were not allowed to communicate with the West, and no one outside China knew what was happening. Then, during the Cultural Revolution era (1966 to 1979), all religious activity in China was outlawed, and Christian congregations only survived in small house groups. When religious freedom was restored, a national church structure was needed, and the China Christian Council was founded in 1980. The China Christian Council is a service organization for all Protestant Christians in China. Churches in China generally see themselves as post-denominational, with local congregations often bringing together Christians from very different traditions.

The China Christian Council promotes theological education and the publication of the Bible, hymn books and other Christian literature, the exchange of information among local churches, and the development of friendly relations with churches overseas. It is estimated that more than 12,000 church buildings are open for public worship in China, and that some 25,000 groups of Protestant Christians meet in private homes. Since 1980, more than 2,700 seminarians have completed their training and 20 million Bibles have been printed and distributed.

The ELCA relates to China primarily through the Amity Foundation, an independent church-related organization developed by Protestant Christians in China to help meet needs related to health education, social welfare, rural development, relief, and rehabilitation within Chinese society. Amity seeks to contribute to China's social development and to its contact with the world beyond China. It serves as a channel for contacts between China and the international Christian community. The ELCA participates in three projects in China which are part of the Amity program. The most active participation is in the English Teachers program. In addition, grants are given for the Amity Rehabilitation Project, which assists children who have contracted polio, and the Drinking Water Project in Henan Province, near the area where ELCA predecessor missionaries lived and worked from 1890 through 1949. The ELCA also assists with a project to develop better care for orphans.